Protection against spyware is of utmost importance if you want to prevent others from exploiting your personal information and browsing habits. SpyBot - Search & Destroy is a full featured security solution designed to keep this kind of malware away from you, while also providing a suite of tools for system repair, file shredding and managing autostart items.

The interface has a clean and professional look, with all the modules in plain view. It provides direct access to the scanning modes, namely: a full system scan that thoroughly analyzes your computer for threats and a custom file/folder scan that allows you to manually select the locations to be processed.

The scanning speed is decent and a full-system scan took about twenty minutes in our case, which is acceptable, but the amount of resources it requires is impressive (the CPU usage exceeded 50% at times).

A system immunization feature is also available, aimed to apply preventive measures against spyware in order to block malware from infecting your computer.

The interface also features an option to switch to Advanced User Mode, which triggers a set of complementary tools that you can use to create system logs, manage autostart items, shred files, repair system inconsistencies or scan for rootkits.

The application is not only able to remove spyware, but it also detects and removes keyloggers, providing at the same time a fast update tool to download the latest virus definitions. To make sure you're on the safe side all the time, SpyBot - Search & Destroy automatically creates a backup of every single removed file.

Other customizations can be performed from the Settings window. This section allows you to configure Windows explorer and browser integration, ignore lists and scheduled scans.

SpyBot - Search & Destroy makes the time you spend with it worthwhile. The spyware detection and disinfection capabilities make it a reliable real-time protection solution against malware, turning it into a virtual bodyguard for your computer.

Here are some key features of "SpyBot - Search & Destroy":

Removal of keyloggers User-extendable database Save removal of threats by shredding them Backups of every removed problem Exclude option to ignore specific problems Permanent blocking of known tracking cookies for IE Permanent blocking of threatening downloads in IE Command line parameters to automate tasks Detailed information about problems found Strict criteria to define targets Integrated update function Settings to automate scan, removal and update System reports to locate even unknown threats Skins to adjust interface to the users liking

Requirements:

512 MB RAM or more 300 MB free hard disk space

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

In response to the latest techniques used by malware developers we have added new enhanced detection methods. This means better protection against the new wave of spyware, rootkits and viruses Scanning and cleaning is now much faster. We have ‘tweaked’ our scanning engine so it now scans faster and some cleaning tasks are now fully automated We have also made certain features of Spybot easier to access from the user interface at the request of our customers, many of whom gave us very useful feedback. There have also been many other functional improvements and enhancements. For example: Improved Startup Tools. These powerful tools now work with even the latest Windows Operating Systems SDScan now runs automatically with escalated privileges. This means no more annoying restarts and no need to run SDCleaner